Happy day after the Super Bowl everyone.  I hope everyone had a wonderful day over indulging in chicken wings and dip.  We by passed the wings and had, trust me, enough dip to make up for the absence.  And more importantly we had a wonderful day as a family watching the football game and eating chips and dip.  (yep, that was dinner for my kids, and I don’t feel guilty about it, mainly cause I through out a few carrots next to the chips to bypass the mom guilty.)  Truthfully, the five of us really didn’t watch the game, just my husband and I did, but it still wasn’t a bad way to spend a Sunday night.

However, the Super Bowl, and thus the dip making, put me behind as usual.  I’m so gonna

have to learn to be ahead, so behind is no longer an option.

Also, I am playing with a fun challenge all month and I encourage you, if you like coloring to play with it.  It is #thedailymarker30day over on instagram, put on by Kathy over at The Daily Marker.  If for nothing else it is a great excuse to spend 5-10 minutes a day coloring.  And it is the perfect time to experiment with ideas that are usually too scary to do.  At least that’s what I’m telling myself while I play with great stamps and try for brilliant shading.

But we are here for the card challenges, so without further ado, I present to you, the challenges.

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First up with have a color challenge from the gurus of color over at The Color Throwdown.  They have a fun Valentine’s day theme with a bit of wrench thrown in color wise.  This week they were looking for a card featuring red, pink, dark grey, and light blue.

I on the other hand did not want to make a Valentine’s Day card, so I decided I was going to make the stamp set I wanted to use work no matter what (I do not recommend this, btw).  I sort of spend a lot of time on a losing battle, but let me share a little secret with you, when I set my mind to something, no matter how bad an idea it is, I am

pretty hard to persuade.

Any who, the stamp set I wanted to use was My Favorite Things Let Hang Out stamp and die set.  See, it really wasn’t made for this color challenge, but well, I’m stubborn.  So I stamped in the tree and colored it in with dark grey pastel, and colored the grass and leaves in a weird green/grey color that I usually avoid cause it is kind of ugly.  Then I pulled out my spectrum Noir Markers and colored in the girl with red and pinks, the tire in dark grey, and the ladder in light blue.  I did however use a great red card stock for the actual card.  Like I said, I know it really doesn’t work, but sometimes you just have to be stubborn and do what you want.

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Next we have a CAS sketch challenge from the gals over at Freshly Made Sketches.  It is a great sketch with nice layers, and yet, it stumped me.  I haven’t been this stumped in a long time and considered just throwing in the towel this week, but alas, I pushed through the block, and worked my through it.

Now, I think those of you who follow me regularly know, that I do no try to hide the ugly.  I in fact it is important to show the world at large that sometimes I fail, and trust me this week I feel I failed.  Every once in a while you finish a card, and just know that what you did, did not work.  And this week, that is exactly what I did.  There is actually nothing work with attempt one, except that it is Boring, and Plain, and Dull, and not Exciting at all.  All I wanted to do was through it away, and start over.  Instead I

took a picture of it and shared it with all of you and then started over.  But again, I think it is important to embrace the mistakes, and admit you are not perfect.

When I started over, however I was more stumped then I was when I made the ugly card.  I have a cast off box of things I tried, or little experiment I do, or ugly things that piss me off, but I know deep in there there is something worth keeping.  So I have this box of basically rejects or unfinished projects, that I like to look through when I am at a loss.  Well, I found this silver/grey happy ink screen, and thought, there might still be something there.  I played around with paper for a while and finally figured out where to do with it all.  Now, I don’t think this is a CAS card, but I like the card, which is more than I can say about the first card.

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Finally we have another color challenge from the queen of colors over at Colour Q.  They have given us the colors kraft, cherry cobbler, ruby red, pool party, and white to play with.  And play I did.  I know the card is simple, but I think it is cute and friendly, and the exact kind of happy mail people want to

get.

I used a Paper Smooches stamp set and my spectrum noir markers.  I layered different colors of card stock and kept is simple.  And I like it.  I like it a lot.

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